Not sure this is the best place to post this question, but maybe you can point me in the right direction.

I'm working on a production of Calderon's The Mayor of Zalamea and desperately trying to find out more information about etiquette in Spain during the time of the play (written in 1636). I'm specifically trying to find out how men and women (of all ranks) would behave towards the King. In the last scene of the play, the King comes to visit the town of Zalamea (I believe the King at that time was Philip IV of the House of Habsburg) and we need to find out how people would bow, for instance. For some reason it's really hard to find out how women would curtsey.

Would you be able to help me out? Anything would be really appreciated, even if you have some vague idea of a book I could go in search for.

From the second article: The emperor "was due the tiefe Reverentz or ‘Spanish reverence’: as a symbol of submission before His Imperial Majesty, courtiers made a deep bow on bended knee."

In the article on http://kops.ub.uni-konstanz.de/bitst...pdf?sequence=1
the author explains, similarily to what is explained on the other website, that there never was a fixed manual of court etiqutte but that there were experts who were trained for years in understanding the sense and function the etiquette had and to work out a ceremonial form for certain events.

Only after 1650 these ceremonial structures were written down into protocolls which were used by the experts then as a help to create a new ceremonial event.

This is a very interesting point as it shows the etiquette never was meant to be static, but to be adapted to changing situations.

So maybe you should go into more research how the author meant the situation to be for the king and then think up your own ceremony in order to convey what the author meant.